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Beltana II - Day 8 on Beltana = Romckes Whale Watching and Ocean Swimming Gala......the Equatorial Atlantic or the Whitsundays?



Wow we just saw a beautiful little whale, I reckon she was a small humpback, but Paul as usual has contrary view and tips a pilot whale.  She made a shallow dive then was spotted again and we changed course to get nice and close and she changed course to intercept us really close – she was just as curious as we were. She had lots of deep breathes and then dove behind our stern and disappeared.
 
Last night was chicken green curry night – very nice indeed – this dish was prepared by a combination of Graham (another rold family recipe he assured us) and finished by Paul. Final prep on the day is by Graham.  The freezer is operating at the best it ever has. no problem is generating ice for whisky and rum last night (not too much though we are on watch you know – but Paul keeps saying “ well I am on holidays you know “ – I cant say that as I am always on holidays this year, and I am a very responsible skipper!!!$$).
We caught two more small Mahi Mahi which Johnny and Paul killed, gutted and filleted fish for dinner tonight.  Fish count now Skip – 1; Johnny 1; Paul – 1; the competition is ON!!  I have already have one the first award “FIRST FISH CAUGHT”!
Last night was a light breeze all night, and mostly clear – just the odd black cloud came across. Mercifully we only had one shower of rain (early on John Casson’s watch) but the clear skies gave us a fantastic star watching night, with a good book on board, we can now find Polaris, Big dipper, small dipper, Orion, Scorpio and Ursula Major.
 
This morning the wind died out completely after first frustrating us by moving westward onto our nose, So before you know it the skipper throws a line overboard and dives of the back for a morning wakeup swim, well it was not long before every one else caught on (we did wake up young Johnny – late snoozing after strenuous night shift star gazing).  This was absolutely great. Johnny the show off had to do the reverse dive off the pulpit rail with a double twist – and then tried to repeat many times by throwing the Gopro into the air to capture his exuberance!  Blue blue water was divine and we are now all clean again!
 
We are off motoring for a while trying to find the wind, but at least we are going in the right direction at 5 knots.  Then Johnny decided to bake a cake – we had not quite planned for that so we are improvising – we do have eggs and flour (not much), but importantly he will use up the remaining very ripe bananas.  Stand by for a later report on the success or otherwise – key question will the oven get hot enough.  Quick question too our help at home – we have lots of citric acide crystals on board (thank Mum???) – what is it for? Is it a bicarb soda replacement? oor yeast replacement? Two key ingredients we DON’T have!

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